UK: O2 looking for buyers

After telecommunications company BT announced its acquisition of EE from its French and German owners, it left O2 without a buyer. Negotiations conducted between BT and the owners of both O2 and EE, and in December BT announced its decision to pursue the EE acquisition. O2 owner Telefónica is now looking for other buyers for its UK subsidiary. One person with knowledge of the situation has said that the potential buyers are currently Sky, TalkTalk and even Three, the smallest UK telecommunications company.

Three is owned by Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong based conglomerate that has actively making moves to strengthen its position in Europe, having agreed to buy Telefónica’s Ireland assets and talks to merge with VimpelCom in Italy.

Telefónica has declined to comment on its sales negotiations at this time, but a source did say that the deal is not urgent since BT’s acquisition is not expected to finalize until 2016.

Full Content: Financial Times

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.